Week 4: Social Networking

Rise of Participation Culture
http://www.alicechristie.org/classes/530/p_culture%20.pdf

Socail Networking the "talk" of the internet. There are many aspects to social networking that it's almost overwhelming. According to this article, there are 5 applications to social networking; social software, media creation and sharing, aggregation and social promotion, collaboration and gaming and virtual worlds. The one aspect I would probably use in my classroom if I could would be social software.

Social software enables people to "intereact" with other communities online. Some of the most popular interaction sites are MySpace and Facebook. After reading the article, I realized that social networking is "unbelievable." There are so many sites for networking it's phenomenal.

Some other social networking available that could be fun for students are Imeen, Last.fm and Gaia Online. All of these sites are what students are interested in so why not try and incorporate them into the classroom. I think social networking is very valuable in education if used the right way.

Since MySpace is one of the most popular sites, why not make a classroom newletter with MySpace. Blogs can be homework assignments and comments can be shared between teacher and student for any clarification or question they may have. Web 2.0 and social networking is the way of the future, so let's embrace it.

Week 3: More on Web 2.0

Teaching Today: Social Bookmarking
http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/social-bookmarking

This week's readings were very insightful, especially the article on Social Bookmarking. As I stated earlier, social bookmarking was something new to me, so reading the article gave me more insight into what it is and how it is used. As before, a social bookmarking site provides a way for students and teachers to save all their web links in one location on the internet. Once they save them, they can then share them with others.

I really like the idea of social bookmarking, especially for research. What a better way to site an internet source then to bookmark it on the internet. That way there is no question as to where each student got their information from. I enjoyed how the article stated that social bookmarking is also used for classroom management and class collaboration. Collaboration among students is helpful, especially if more than one student is looking up the same topic. They could just share what sites each other found.

I would love to use this tool in my classroom for researching. I think it would be very beneficial to my students and for me as a teacher.

Week 2: Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0? Good question is what I asked myself when I was asked that question. I didn't really know what it was. After our classroom discussion, it became a little bit clearer. Web 2.0 to my understanding is web-based communities who develop ways to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users. The article, "A Day in the Life of Web 2.0," share some good ways to describe Web 2.0. One way they talk about is blogging, which I have some experience with when I created my MySpace page. Blogging can be a positive and powerful took used in the classroom, if used properly. Wikis is another way to describe Web 2.0. I personally have not used a wiki, but am looking forward to learn more about them. The last idea that the article stated was social bookmarking. Before reading this article, I really didn't have a good idea on what social bookmarking was. I like how the article showed how social bookmarking can be used for lesson plans and sharing ideas and web pages that could be helpful in planning.

EDT 547-548

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